The first batch of 100(!) FM-YAM units shipped on the 16th of March 2018! A historical milestone! There are 20 more in an extended batch, of which only 10 are left. Those 10 people that reserved one in the range of reservation numbers 122 – 131 are in luck and got an email to purchase one of the last 10!

FM-YAM units are assembled the coming weeks and then ready for shipment! We changed the colour of the 3D printed cartridge cases to red, which is a lovely colour. So, FM-YAM is still set for a Q1 2018 release! Also, you can still reserve a unit, if I get sufficient reservations, I think I’ll do a second batch.

Over the course of just 1 week we’ve passed 100 reservations of FM-YAM! This is great news! The next step is the manufacturing of the units. If you reserved a unit, you will be receiving a payment notification as soon as it is ready to ship.

Yesterday marked the completion of the fully automated upload of more than 50.000 Commodore 64 SID tunes to a single YouTube channel, check my VLOG of it. I started this project at the end of April 2016, and coded the program that would automate the upload. See this picture here to see the number of uploads per day! It took 66 days from first upload to finish. Effectively, there were 57 days of non-stop uploading, day and night (since I went on a holiday in between). Here’s a link to the readme.txt of the tool I coded to do the job. Phase 2 will be expanding the channel, checking/fixing tunes, and much more. Stay “tuned” for new updates. To keep track of it all, go to the USHSC Facebook page and like it!

I recently started a new project, unrelated to game research. Wait what? Then it has got to do with Commodore 64 right? Indeed. I used to compose SID tunes actively on the C64, back in the day. In this day and age, I still try to release at least a few products for that machine each year. It’s hard to find any time though, but I get by I guess. However, the love for SID and her composers will not die. I love to listen to the works of all SID composers, and I really want t honour them. Let;’s combine the two – listening and honouring – and create a gargantuan YouTube playlist with tunes by ALL composers. Not those few that the majority of people will know. No, ALL of them, as there are some brilliant compositions in there that we all should know. They deserve it. So check out this playlist and YouTube Channel. Be sure to subscribe if you wish to keep track of the uploads. Play the list while doing whatever, or just play to listen. You will discover some real gems, I’m sure. And you will never run out of new SID tunes to listen to.

Due to limited time available for the front page news updates, you haven’t seen anything here for a while. No matter! The Game Research Forum is alive as ever, and kicking like never before! If you need to keep track of what is going on at the forum, which tools have been created, models and archives have been cracked and much more, simply follow us on Facebook! You won’t regret it! Like, and you will hear about the cool stuff!

Since we have now sufficient donations to keep up the website this period, the forum is now again open for everyone to join! A huge thanks for those members that went through the trouble of donating 5 euros to the cause to join our boards. The Summer is now a good time for all, and the bills can be paid! Head over to the forum to register, now is your chance if you didn’t already!